very pleased with this one

My mom: I'm worried that watching 7 Saw movies in 2 days is going to affect your art.

Me: b i r d s

Btw these are both unfinished

"Nihilist Heron" 12"x16" acrylic, conté crayon, wax pastel on reclaimed support

Herons have captured my attention lately. I love their feathers and shapes.

grey heron w a snack

how do you live?

great blue heron bell

cone 04 terracotta, underglaze, glaze, wire, cotton thread

Kiriko

Hayao Miyazaki, Il ragazzo e l'airone. Art by Loputyn

One thing for those who have watched The Boy and The Heron or will watch it. The Japanese title for it is How Do You Live? And Miyazaki stated he was leaving it for his grandson, saying, "Grandpa is moving onto the next world soon but he is leaving behind this film".

The deaths of contemporaries and friends such as Satoshi Kon and Isao Takahata and also the expected successor of Yoshifumi Kondo were things that have always weighed heavily on the back of Miyazaki's mind.

He recognizes the industry and the occupation for how soul crushing it was, grinding up either the spirit or the physical body of those who work in it. He loves and hates the industry he stands on the peak of and fully recognizes how it will probably be the death of him. And he knows it'll leave him unable to say a lot of things to his Grandson.

So How Do You Live? is a lesson. For his grandson. For himself. For his two sons. And probably for anyone else willing to pay attention.

Hayao Miyazaki is a flawed man that makes things so important to so many people. And I think more than any other film of his, in this you get to pull back the curtain a bit and see him at work. And what should be this giant unblemished titan can be seen for what he is, a sad old man who had higher hopes for himself and has even higher hopes for the people he makes his work for.

It's a beautiful thing to see another's humanity in their work. To look past the artifice and glam of commercialized art and find humans behind it. And humans willing to show their humanity and mortality is even rarer. And something to be celebrated. So when you watch it. Or if you've watched it already. Understand that this film is Miyazaki kneeling down, weary after years of weaving dreams and making mistakes, reaching out and saying to you that he hopes you can do better. It's an old man who's made all the mistakes of the world passing it on to you, hoping you do better, and making sure you know it's okay if you don't.

How do you Live? By making mistakes. By messing up. But still moving forward. And still reaching out.

sold

pictures don’t always do them justice. I should take more videos

god i miss when this artist posted (<- is the artist)

"Cynic Heron" 12"x16" acrylic, conté crayon, and wax pastels on reclaimed support

Can you guess the next in the heron series?

green heron & yellow perches

Fellas, if something is truly inspiring, it is:

Hayao Miyazaki made an uncompromisingly personal, artsy movie that no one was supposed to get because it's too personal, too dark, too 'exotic' or whatever. And it actually became immensely successful and popular despite it (because of it???) And Disney made the safest, most backbone-less, most non-combative and soy and politically correct and soft and crowd-pleasing 'Wish' and it failed!!! It fucking failed, my friends! A historical moment! Should we finally throw away all those Hollywood seminars and workshops that try to sell us 'how to make the universally loved stories Disney style'???

There is nothing universal about any movie.

And the world is finally hungry for something different.